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Presentation |
Sustainable
Development
Environment degradation, poverty reduction, and sustainable
development remain major concerns for countries in Asia and
the Pacific. Decision makers at high level must assess the
progress of sustainable development and discuss common
challenges posed by critical social and environment
conditions to create sustainability.
In order to face these challenges, it is necessary to
realize that environment, poverty, and sustainable
development are interrelated. “Sustainable Development”
usually refers to the process “developing” in the
sustainable way, and also to the “goal” of that process;
“sustainability” refers to the concept of sustainable
development. Sustainability thus means constraining human
economic activity so as to protect those life - support
systems. The basic life-support systems are the integrity of
the global atmosphere, biodiversity, and stocks of
exhaustible and renewable resources. Furthermore,
sustainability is concerned with inter-generational equity
but implementation of intra-generational equity requires the
distribution of any sacrifices required for sustainability.
Sustainable development is then growth subject to those
constraints. Is it meaningful to talk of sustainable
development when we even don’t know what the sustainability
and practical ways of them need of future generations. May
be, which particular ecological, social, and economic
conditions represent the “sustainable state”, and what is
the practical term that we had better use? We usually have
long-term objectives first, but typically what happens is
that funding is structured on a short-term basis with the
intention that sustainable jobs will be created which will
support long-term objectives. So, what we are looking for is
a goal between the posts-a strategy that has a certain
long-term stability as well as focused short-term activity
and where the long-term activity is interdependent with
short-term viability.
One of the important issues is environmental sustainability.
Environment degradation is the damage to the biosphere as a
whole due to human activity. They can take many forms
including, but not limited to, desertification,
deforestation, extinction, and radioactivity. Some of the
major causes of such degradation include: overpopulation,
urban sprawl, industrial pollution, waste dumping, intensive
farming, over fishing, industrialization, introduction of
invasive species and a lack of environmental regulations.
The goal of environmental sustainability is to minimize
these and other causes, to halt, and ideally to reverse the
processes they lead to. An unsustainable situation occurs
when natural capital is used up faster than it can be
replenished. Sustainability requires that human activity, at
a minimum, only uses nature’s resources at a rate at which
they can be replenished naturally.
Theoretically, the long term final result of environmental
degradation would result in local environments that are no
longer able to sustain human populations to any degree. Such
degradation on a global scale would, if not addressed, of
course mean extinction for humanity. In the short term,
environmental degradation leads to declining standards of
living, the extinctions of large numbers of species, health
problems in the human population, conflicts, sometimes
violent, between groups fighting for a dwindling resource,
water scarcity and many other major problems. So, the
sustainable development of environment strategies that
recognize both short-term and long-term needs.
Sustainable development does not focus solely on
environmental issues. More broadly, sustainable development
policies encompass three general policy areas: economic,
environment, and social. To illustrate go into the economic
viewpoint, according to the sustainability problem is that
of managing economic activity so as to address inequality
and poverty in ways that do not undermine the base for
future economic activity.
These concerns about the quest for long-term sustainability
must be taken into consideration. How we define
sustainability the time frame, the boundary issues, and the
reliance on current fuels depends very much on the
assumptions we make about global economic and social
stability. This in turn is influenced by our world view of
nature and about natural ecosystems and resources.
For those who strongly believe in neoclassical economics and
the power of the marketplace, it is assumed that any
scarcity in natural resources will be adjusted for by the
price of those materials in the market. However, this
approach externalizes many costs and usually does not
include the environmental impacts or long-term social
consequences of economic decisions. For others who see our
species as one more among many millions, the short-term
market approach is short sighted and destructive. These
people believe that we share the planet with other life
forms and in the health of the ecosystem lies our own
potential for continued survival. It is difficult to
reconcile these two points of view, but the precautionary
principle suggests that we need to carefully consider the
latter. Different people always cause different opinions.
I think we have to decide in case, which case we had better
use long-term plan, and which case we should use the short
one. Nevertheless which one what we choose, we must always
recognize all the thing to achieve for our goal;
sustainability.
It is essential if we are to seek a path toward long-term
sustainability. Serious consideration of limited natural
resources, efficient and judicious use of nonrenewable
resources, and care for the environment in which we all live
is critical to health of the ecosystem and our own
well-being. We must take a broad view of the environment, a
long-term perspective on resource use, and a practical
outlook on what is possible with current resources and
population plus those projected for the future. We need a
thoughtful sorting out of our needs versus our wants. It
should be possible to find a middle course that supports
local economies and promotes a modest amount of trade while
fostering an individual spirit that builds community and
society without destroying the resource base on which we
depend. For our survival and prosperity, the sooner we begin
investing in making sustainability work, the lower the costs
and the greater the returns will be. If all these
requirements can be fulfilled sufficiently and effectively
soon, the future outlook will be bright. Both short-term and
long-term sustainability would be the ways how to contribute
to a better future. So, let’s do it.
Let’s start it together.
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